Bank of America Provides $100,000 Gift to UCLA Anderson Forecast; Gift Demonstrates Bank's Commitment to Helping Businesses Grow.

LOS ANGELES -- In a brief ceremony today, Bank of America Market President Chris Frank presented Bruce Willison, dean of UCLA Anderson School of Management, with a check for $100,000 to support the UCLA Anderson Forecast. This is the largest gift of its kind given to UCLA's economic forecasting group.

Through the generosity of Bank of America, the UCLA Anderson Forecast's March 2005 conference will focus on business growth in an uncertain economy. Bank of America has been a regular supporter of the scholarly pursuits of UCLA and UCLA Anderson School of Management.

"We're pleased that Bank of America is affording the UCLA Anderson Forecast the opportunity to create a symposium focused on business growth," said Dean Willison. "The bank recognizes the value that economic projections can provide in driving business growth."

"We view our ongoing partnership with UCLA and the UCLA Anderson Forecast as an integral part of our commitment to bring a higher standard of service to the U.S. business sector," said Bank of America's Frank, a UCLA alumnus. "By turning numbers into knowledge, the UCLA Anderson Forecast, with its accurate, unbiased economic projections, provides the kind of up-to-date, cutting-edge intelligence that businesses of all sizes need in order to stay competitive."

Founded in 1952, the UCLA Anderson Forecast is one of the most widely watched and often-cited economic outlooks for California and the nation. Award-winning for its accuracy, the UCLA Anderson Forecast often breaks with consensus in its quarterly forecast reports, which feature projections for major economic indicators, including inflation, interest rates, job growth and gross domestic product growth.

"Success in starting small businesses and growing them into large ones is the reason that so much global growth has originated in the United States," noted Prof. Edward Leamer, director of the UCLA Anderson Forecast. "The California economy, more than most other regions, depends on its small and medium-business entrepreneurs."

Bank of America is the nation's largest business bank, with relationships with one in every five small and mid-sized businesses in its coast-to-coast footprint, covering 29 states plus the District of Columbia.

Last month, Bank of America announced that it had retained its ranking as the number one Small Business Administration (SBA) lender in the United States, in California and in Los Angeles for the third straight year. During the fiscal year ending on September 30, 2004, Bank of America made SBA loans totaling $126.4 million to more than 3,600 California borrowers, more than half of them in Los Angeles.

Details of the UCLA Anderson Forecast's March 2005 Conference will be forthcoming in early 2005. For more information on the UCLA Anderson Forecast, visit its Web site at http://uclaforecast.com/.

About Bank of America

Bank of America is one of the world's largest financial institutions, serving individual consumers, small businesses and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset management and other financial and risk-management products and services. The company provides unmatched convenience in the United States, serving 33 million consumer relationships with 5,800 retail banking offices, more than 16,000 ATMs and award-winning online banking with more than 11 million active users. Bank of America is the #1 Small Business Administration lender in the United States. The company serves clients in 150 countries and has relationships with 96 percent of the U.S. Fortune 500 companies and 82 percent of the Global Fortune 500. Bank of America Corporation stock (ticker: BAC) is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Web site: http://www.bankofamerica.com

About UCLA Anderson School of Management

UCLA Anderson School of Management is perennially ranked among the top-tier business schools in the world. Award-winning faculty renowned for their research and teaching, highly selective admissions, successful alumni and world-class facilities combine to provide an extraordinary learning environment. UCLA Anderson students are part of a culture that values individual vision, intellectual discipline and a sense of teamwork and collegiality.

Established in 1935, UCLA Anderson School of Management provides management education to more than 1,400 students enrolled in MBA and doctoral programs, and some 2,000 executives and managers enrolled annually in executive education programs. Recognizing that the school offers unparalleled expertise in management education, the world's business community turns to UCLA Anderson School of Management as a center of influence for the ideas, innovations, strategies and talent that will shape the future.